darkoshi | Entries tagged with tools

I have some family photos in which I know who is who in them. I have some other photos where I know the names of some people in it, but not who is who. And some photos with a mix of both. The latter photos may include other people for whom I have no names and am not concerned with at this time. It would be useful to have an AI tool where I could enter the names I know, matched to some faces, and have it figure out the other names and faces for me. I'm sure there are tools that can do that already. But would they be available to end-users like me, and are there ones that would run only on my computer without leaking any personal info to online companies?

I'd also find it very useful to have an AI tool that I could train to edit & rename my other photos like I normally do. I am so behind in doing that, making it hard to find photos from the last 4 years or so that I know I have. Even if the tool didn't do it perfect, it could make it easier maybe. But again, I want my photos and related data to remain private, not end up on the web somewhere.

Metal tongs are also good for cleaning out gutters!

(They allowed me to finish the task even after being horrified to find tons of ants running around in the gutters after I'd pulled out a few handfuls of leaves. They must have built a nest within the decaying leaves and gunk in there. But the tongs would work well on ant-free gutters too. )

The tongs are narrow enough to easily pull crud out of the gutters with them, and they avoid me getting my hands/gloves dirty while doing it.

You know what is really nice? Storing the step stool right next to the closet where you often need to use it to reach the high shelf. I never noticed what an inconvenience it was before, having to fetch it. Instead, I turn around intending to go fetch it, and there it is already!

Another nice thing is when you're outside at midnight in the icy cold air taking photos of the sky, and when your nose starts getting cold, having a big face-covering mask that you can put on to keep it warm.

And now, what do I discover, hidden from view under a socket wrench set in Qiao's garage?

An unopened barbecue tool set, including *metal tongs*.

I had even looked out there before, when I was checking around to see if we already had any tongs anywhere. But I didn't look in *that* spot.

These tongs have the same kind of metal tab mechanism in the back that you push in or pull out to unlock/lock the tongs in a closed position.

The tongs have already proven themselves useful!, for pulling cooked pumpkin pieces out of boiling hot water. Some day I won't fathom how or why I went so long without having any. Maybe that is how my brother felt long ago when he was staying at my house, and was incredulous that I didn't have a soup ladle.

Note to self:
I have a really neat fine pointed tweezer that was in my spudger set. As I didn't even remember it and would never think to look for tweezers there, I am moving it to one of the big toolboxes with the other tweezers.

Note 2: The tweezer handles are black, so they are hard to see against the black plastic of the toolbox compartment. But that is where I put it.

I had out all the things to fix the tongs, and the tongs were there an hour ago when I checked if this small bolt would fit to replace the rivet. But now I can't find the tongs anywhere. Sigh. Maybe they don't want to be fixed.

Note to self: Don't trust a 2 year old when she brings me a half-full bottle of Gatorade wanting me to open it for her, and when she replies Yes to my question of does she drink it straight from the bottle. The liquid went straight down the front of her jacket onto the floor.

I already broke the tongs!

They are the metal kind with a spring in the end, but they were closed up with no obvious way to open them*. So I pulled on the ends, applying force, and got them to open a small amount (which would have been good enough). But then I decided that having them open further would be better, so I pulled harder, and the rivet holding it together broke!

I don't know if the label had instructions, but I don't think so. When I got to the checkout counter yesterday (right before the store closing time), the tongs were missing the label with the bar code and price. It was just a small square of cardboard clipped on with a plastic thread, so it might have fallen off somewhere, or maybe it was missing to begin with. I walked back very quickly to get another tong for the cashier to scan, and told her she could give me the one without the label.

I specifically chose those tongs as they were the only ones without plastic or rubber on them. I don't want plastic as it could get scratched up, and wouldn't be good in case I wanted to use the tongs for pulling something out of flames. I don't want rubber as rubber things tend to get sticky as they age around here, due to the humidity.

(That's another thing I wanted to gripe about. Aloe gel-based hand sanitizers leave my hands sticky even after rubbing them a long time. Even after they start feeling dry, they become sticky again when I touch something like my car's steering wheel. And god forbid it rains and I touch something wet - the residue on my hands turns to slime.)

.

It looks like it's about to rain too, and I haven't even showered yet. Not conducive for baggie-buying.
What to do, what to do?!

*Based on one of the online reviews, the tongs have a locking device on the end: "pull up for closing and push down for open"
Damn, so that is how it works. Would have been good to know. I should be able to fix them if I can find something to replace the rivet with, and if I can get the spring to stay in place while trying to re-assemble it.

Someone left a thank you on an informational entry I posted over 5 years ago about the lint filter on my old washing machine. Yay, that's why I post those kind of things sometimes. To help anyone else who may encounter the same problems I did.

Today I used my lithium battery-powered leaf blower (Greenworks model 24282). Sometimes it sucks my clothes against the bottom side where it pulls air in. When that happens, I shift it further away from myself. But today it sucked in the drawstring on my pants, tore off a piece, and started making a bad noise. So I turned it off.

This evening I extricated the piece of drawstring that had gotten stuck inside the unit. After removing the nozzle, I could see the piece by looking in through the front of the unit with a flashlight. But it was stuck so tight that pulling on it with long tweezers and a long-necked pair of pliers wasn't able to get it free. So I opened the blower up. It has 13 screws on one side which hold the 2 halves of the housing together. After removing the screws, I couldn't get the halves apart at first. Finally I noticed there was a plastic warning sticker* under the handle, right over where the halves joined together. That was also holding them together. Cutting a slit down the middle of the sticker allowed the halves to came apart easily.

Pulling on the drawstring as I'd been doing before had gotten it stuck worse. It needed to be pulled out inwards from the center of the fan, rather than outwards. With the unit open, it was easy to do.

*One of the tiny icons on the sticker even warns against wearing loose clothing. Though without looking at the manual as I'm doing now, I wouldn't have been able to figure out that's what the icon represented. Another icon warns about long hair... yikes, that would be worse to get stuck. The blower is so light and easy to use (and unlike other tools, doesn't have any sharp blades; it only blows air!) that I hadn't thought of it as potentially dangerous.

..

Now I feel inspired to try fixing my dryer (I did once before already, so have an idea what the problem is). But starting to dismantle a dryer at 3am is not a good idea.

I am drilling some 5/16" holes in some pieces of wood. The drilling was taking forever and wasn't making much progress depth-wise. It reminded me of how hard it was using the large spade bits on the tree stumps outside earlier this year. Drilling some slightly smaller holes a few weeks ago in the same wood pieces had been so much easier and quicker! I had thought it was only spade bits and brad bits that were difficult like that, so I especially bought some larger sized twist bits, which I'm using today.

So I do a web search to see why it's so hard to drill large holes in wood, and find this page: A beginner's guide to drills and bits. It mentions:
... many hand drivers are reversible, so if it's spinning but not cutting, make sure you're going the right direction.

D'oh!!! The button for reversing direction is so easy to accidentally press on this drill. It works much better in the right direction. Now I wonder if I had it going in the wrong direction last year too, when I was using the spade bits.

I was about to make a batch of brownies - had even measured out the first ingredient, when I remembered that the oven isn't working at all anymore. A few days ago, it started going beep-beep-beep every minute and showed an error code which indicated a short in the touchpad panel. So I've ordered a replacement panel which should get here by next week; hopefully that will fix it and I won't have to replace the whole oven.

Yesterday I tested grinding the concrete with the diamond cup wheel. It works, but takes longer than cutting grooves, and makes a whole lot more dust. Since the grooves I did last week seem to be working fairly well so far, I cut more grooves with the flat blade. Hopefully that will suffice to keep rainwater from seeping into the garage. If not, I may cut another shallow groove right along the door to connect the other grooves.

Qiao was watching the 1994 movie "(Leon) The Professional" this evening, and so I watched too. The actor playing the 12 year old girl looked familiar. It was a young Natalie Portman - her first movie!

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/640523.html

2 guys came by in November to check on the house repairs I needed done. They were supposed to get back in touch with me, but I haven't heard from them since. I never heard back from the guy I had used before, who had come by a month earlier, either. So the gutter still hasn't been fixed.

But they did give me another idea of how to deal with rain getting in under the garage door. I had considered putting in a "garage door threshold seal", but that would make it harder to sweep dirt out of the garage. They noted that the water was probably puddling against the door and then seeping under it. Even though the garage is on a rise, the concrete right at the bottom of the door isn't sloped enough. In the past, Qiao had wanted to grind the concrete down some, but at the time we didn't really have the right tools for it. These guys suggested cutting some grooves in the concrete to allow the water to drain away.

So I did some reading. An angle grinder can be used for cutting grooves in concrete, as well as for grinding concrete. But the tool sounds rather dangerous. I decided to first try using an old screwdriver, chisel, and mallet to cut out some grooves. I was surprised at how soft the cement part of the concrete is - moist from recent rains, it could be scratched away with the screwdriver, without even needing the mallet. But the granite chips in the concrete are much harder and difficult to gouge away. They do make lovely sparks though! Yee-ha!

I decided to go ahead and buy an angle grinder to speed up the process. I bought a flat turbo diamond blade for cutting grooves, and also a diamond turbo cup wheel for grinding some of the concrete down to increase the slope.

I'd never used an angle grinder before, and the instructions that came with this one were somewhat lacking. I did some more reading to make sure that I was attaching the blade correctly. More horror stories about angle grinder accidents momentarily made me wish I hadn't bought it. But at least the kind of blades I got are supposed to be the less dangerous ones.

Today I got up my courage, along with my safety goggles, dust mask, denim clothes and work gloves, and tested the angle grinder with the flat blade. It really does cut through the concrete easily, including the granite.

I was going to test the cup wheel today too, but that one says to use a full face mask over the safety goggles. I don't have a full face mask, and I'm not going to ignore the safety warnings. So back to the store I'll go. In retrospect, my brother's motorcycle helmets which I just gave away, might have come in handy.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/639633.html

These scissors which I had were useful for cutting open clamshell packaging - the angled handles kept my hands safely away from the sharp edges of the cut plastic. But as can be seen, one of the handles broke off:

I searched for a replacement in a few stores, but failed to find any similar scissors. The so-called "offset scissors" that are available have only one of the handles angled upwards, not both.

Then I searched the web, but still failed to find any scissors like these. Who knew that I had such a unique pair of scissors? They were previously Forestfen's, but I don't know where they originally came from.

The closest thing I have found is trauma shears. I've read that they also work well for cutting open clamshell packaging. So I'll try a pair of them.

Update: Found this somewhat similar pair of scissors: Fons & Porter Chenille and Applique Scissors. Still plan to get the trauma shears - they sound sturdier.

This is one of those cases which serves to remind me that there are many things which exist or have existed, without ever having been photographed, documented, and indexed (to be easily found by me) on the internet, or at least on the part of the internet which I access.